Although you can queue for Alterac Valley
(AV) using the PvP menu or with a battlemaster in any major
city, the official entry points are in Hillsbrad. The alliance entry is
north of Southshore and the horde entry point is north-east of Tarren Mill.

Generally, horde will want to run north while alliance
run south on offense. The Generals for each team are located at opposite ends of the
map
(alliance would attack the Frostwolf Relief Hut where Drek'Thar is
located, and horde would attack
Stormpike Aid Station where Vanndar Stormpike is located). The goal is to either cause the enemy team to run out of resources or
to kill the enemy General. If you are not zerging or blitzing (heading
straight for the enemy's General) you can capture various locations (i.e.
towers, bunkers, and mines) as you travel
towards the enemy General to either obtain resources for your team or take away
resources from the enemy. The mines, for instance, will produce resources
for your team. Destroying the enemy towers or killing enemy players will
help to take away resources from your enemy.

tip: Playing
offensively typically leads to quicker games.

1)
The zerg or the Blitz: The
Alterac Valley Blitz is similar to
the zerg except that it must be completed within 6 minutes of the game
starting to earn the achievement. A zerg simply means that players rush for the opposing team’s
general and down him at any given time. A zerg can happen right at the beginning of the
game, or any time thereafter.

2) Win by reinforcements: The first team to run
out of reinforcements will lose regardless of whether or not the General
is killed. You can use different methods to make the opposing team run
out of reinforcements (such as destroying enemy towers or killing enemy
players or Captains) and gain reinforcements for your team (taking the
mines, releasing Wing Commanders).

Each team starts out with
4 towers. The horde initially own East and West Frostwolf towers, Tower
Point, and Iceblood Tower. The alliance initially own North and South Dun
Baldar towers, Stonehearth Bunker, and Icewing bunker.

To
capture a tower, a player has to run up inside and click on the flag.
There is an 8 second capture timer during which the player clicking on
the flag may be interrupted. If a player successfully clicks the
flag for 8 seconds, the opposite team will lose control of the tower but
your team will not yet own the tower. The towers and bunkers have a capture time of 3
minutes. That is, unless a tower/ bunker is recapped (after having been
capped) within 3 minutes, it will burn and reinforcements will be lost.
Once a tower has burned, there is no way to recapture it. To
recapture or defend a tower that was assaulted by the enemy, a player
from your team will have to click the tower's flag before the timer runs
out and the tower burns. Similar to assaulting a tower, defending
a tower has a channeling timer so you may be interrupted while
attempting to defend the tower.

Flag inside of Alterac Valley Tower (West Frostwolf Tower).

You will need to kill the guards defending each of the towers in
order to get out of combat and eat/drink. The guards are fairly easy to kill and
do not move from their spots. The captains for each team both have
Warmasters (horde) and Marshals (alliance) protecting them. These
Warmasters and Marshals will die when towers and bunkers are burned, making the
general easier to kill.

Towers and bunkers are each worth 75
reinforcements. Try to burn as many of the enemy's towers as
possible while defending your own.

The capturing of
graveyards in Alterac Valley is very strategic. The resurrection locations
of players depends on the graveyards that are owned by each team. Capping
inappropriate graveyards can cause the game to end up as a "turtle" which
essentially means that the teams get bottlenecked in an area and cannot pass one
another, thus slowing down the game.

If your team does not own any of
the graveyards, all players on your team will be resurrecting at the starting
point (far north for alliance, far south for horde).

You will want to keep an eye on your map to see which graveyards are owned by
each team. Keep in mind that for a team to be able to resurrect at a
particular graveyard, the graveyard needs to be fully captured and not on a timer (attacked
by a player but not fully captured).

What Graveyards should
I capture?

Ideally, your team wants to gain control of the
graveyard that is nearest to the enemy starting point. If you are horde,
you want to capture the Stormpike Aid Station (Dun Baldar). if you are alliance, you
want to capture the Frostwolf Relief Hut (Relief Hut). This graveyard should be your
top priority to capture.

Once this graveyard is secure, go for the next
closest one - Stormpike if you are horde, Frostwolf is you are alliance.

It is beneficial to capture and control the graveyard that is near the two enemy
towers located in the middle of the map. If you are horde attempting to
capture Icewing Bunker and Stonehearth Bunker, try to control Stonehearth
graveyard. If you are alliance attempting to capture Iceblood Tower and
Tower Point, try to control Iceblood Graveyard.

An Alterac Valley (AV) Turtle
is when players from both teams are stuck battling in a particular area
and neither team is able to get through or past the cluster of players.

It is called a turtle becausethe AV match slows down
tremendously. Players are mostly stuck in one area and no
team is making much progression. These matches typically end after
a long period of time when one team slowly overpowers the other team and
makes it through to the enemy base, or when enough players on a
particular team are killed, causing them to run out of resources.

Typical areas that teams end up turtling are labeled on the map below.

Typical locations of turtles in Alterac Valley.

What causes Turtles?

Certain circumstances, such as
capping inappropriate graveyards, can cause the game to end up as a turtle. This usually happens
if not enough players run directly towards the enemy base to capture the
Frostwolf Relief Hut (if alliance) or Stormpike Aid Station (if horde).
One of the teams will wipe at Galv or Balinda, players will fight in areas they
shouldn't' be, graveyards are ninja'd by enemy players, and so forth.

How do you Avoid a Turtle?

Ideally, to avoid a
turtle, a few people (2-5 at least) would run directly to the other team's base
to capture the furthest most flag. That is, horde would capture Stormpike
Aid Station and alliance would capture Frostwolf Relief Hut. Capturing
these graveyards makes it so the enemy team cannot resurrect there and makes is
easier to capture the nearby towers and bunkers. Once the area is somewhat
secure, your team can attempt to capture the next closest graveyard (horde would
capture Stormpike Graveyard and alliance would capture Frostwolf
Graveyard).

To avoid a turtle, it's beneficial to actually
allow the enemy to capture at least one of your graveyards.
This will allow for some enemy players to resurrect behind you, and make
it easier for your team to reach the enemy base without much
interference.

Alliance could let the horde capture the Stonehearth
Graveyard. Horde could let the alliance capture Iceblood
Graveyard. Both of these graveyards are far enough from the
enemy's home base to allow them to easily defend it, but far enough from
your team's base to allow for the enemy to easily attack it.

How do you recover from a Turtle?

The majority of people will actually contribute to a turtle rather than
help their team recover from one. The biggest mistake people do is
attack enemies or jump in to help their teammates when a battle is
taking place in a certain area, instead of continuing to where they
should be going. If a bunch of payers from both teams are
turtled in a certain area and can't seem to get by, do not stop and add
to the clutter. Keep running! The more players from
your team that can get past the turtle, the better chances you have of
capturing a graveyard closer to the enemy base.

A
good way to recover from an AV turtle is to have as many stealth players
(druids, rogues) as possible make their way to the enemy base in stealth
form. They may not have to stealth the entire way there, but at
least stealth safely past the turtle or other enemy players they
encounter. Once they capture the graveyard at the enemy base, they
can assault the towers as well. Hopefully other players will begin
resurrecting there shortly to help out.

Each team has one
Captain and one General. The name of the alliance Captain is Balinda
Stonehearth, located in Stonehearth Outpost, and the horde Captain is Galvangar,
located in Iceblood Garrison. Neither Captain has any Marshals or Warmasters protecting them.
The Captains grant a periodic buff of 20% extra health and a size increase to
players so long as they remain alive. Killing a Captain reduces the team's
reinforcements by 100.

Each team also has one General located at
the either end of the map. The alliance General is Vanndar Stormpike,
located in Dun Baldar, and the horde General is Drek'Thar, located in Frostwolf
Keep. Each of the Generals is guarded by 4 Warmasters (Drek'Thar) or 4
Marshals (Vanndar Stormpike). These 4 Warmasters and Marshals give a
buff to the boss increasing his damage and health by 25%. For each enemy
tower that is burned a respective Warmaster or Marshal is killed.
Therefore, the more towers that are damaged, the easier it is to kill the
General. The health of the General is reset if the person with aggro runs
out of the room. Killing the General results in an automatic win.

Each team has 3 Wing
Commanders that are located in enemy territory. These Wing Commanders can
be sent home by clicking on them and speaking with them. Sending them home
will grant your team extra bonus honor and offer a quest upon their arrival.

The alliance quest turn-ins will be found near Dun Baldar and the horde
quest turn-ins will be found near Frostwolf. Each Wing Commander
accepts a different item which they collect in multiples. The quest turn
in items can be found by looting corpses.

Alliance Wing Commanders and their locations:

Slidore: Tower Point (collects Frostwolf Soldier's Medal)Vipore: A hut next to the horde NPC Jotek, within the
camp just south of Frostwolf graveyard (collects Frostwolf
Lieutenant's Medal)Ichman: East Frostwolf Tower (collects Frostwolf Commander's
Medal)

Competing in Alterac Valley matches and completing the quests will allow you to
gain reputation. The alliance gain reputation for the Stormpike Expedition
and the horde gain reputation for the Frostwolf Clan.

How to gain
Reputation:

Gaining reputation for the Frostwolf Clan
and Stormpike Expedition is relatively easy and definitely the easiest
of the battleground reputations.